Is it only to enable/disable multiplayer traffic?  I always thought it had to do w/ which cloud server the entire sim was connected to but when I looked at its fine print seems it's only about multiplayer.

Edited September 15, 20232 yr by Noel

1 hour ago, Noel said:

Is it only to enable/disable multiplayer traffic?  I always thought it had to do w/ which cloud server the entire sim was connected to but when I looked at its fine print seems it's only about multiplayer.

Yes, that's only for multiplayer. If you have don't use multiplayer and have it disabled (as I do) it will show you as offline but you still have all the other online features working, like Bing Maps, Photogrammetry or Live Weather.

It is only really relevant if you are joining a multiplayer group flight or following a stream. You need to be on the same server as everyone else.

I had a couple of planes recently land and just race across the airport thru vegetation after landing.  I am hoping that was another live player, which I can now block, thanks!

12 minutes ago, Noel said:

I had a couple of planes recently land and just race across the airport thru vegetation after landing.  I am hoping that was another live player, which I can now block, thanks!

mmm strange  always  thought  you had  to be  on  multiplayer  server  to see  the  aircraft

3 hours ago, Noel said:

I had a couple of planes recently land and just race across the airport thru vegetation after landing.  I am hoping that was another live player, which I can now block, thanks!

Potentially they had a different addon airport to you.

10 hours ago, Noel said:

Is it only to enable/disable multiplayer traffic?  I always thought it had to do w/ which cloud server the entire sim was connected to but when I looked at its fine print seems it's only about multiplayer.

I thought the same as you Noel, but we were both wrong as the replies to your post show.  It's a shame really as it would be nice to connect to a server in a part of the world where everyone is asleep when our local servers get overloaded, but alas it is not to be.

You can, of course achieve this via a VPN, though the speeds I get from Nord can be a bit hit or miss at times - fast enough for most things but not always fast enough for msfs (though they often can be).  This approach may also be useful if your ISP is slowing down your ms connection (which it is understood that some do).

2 hours ago, cianpars said:

I thought the same as you Noel, but we were both wrong as the replies to your post show.  It's a shame really as it would be nice to connect to a server in a part of the world where everyone is asleep when our local servers get overloaded, but alas it is not to be.

You can, of course achieve this via a VPN, though the speeds I get from Nord can be a bit hit or miss at times - fast enough for most things but not always fast enough for msfs (though they often can be).  This approach may also be useful if your ISP is slowing down your ms connection (which it is understood that some do).

There is not “a” server. When running, MSFS connects to multiple discrete IP addresses.  I do not use multiplayer, ATC or r/t traffic, and I have still seen as many 9 to 12 discrete TCP/IP connections. I am in the US Northeast, and running checks of the IP addresses in use shows that some are physically located on the west coast, some on the east coast, and some in the Midwest. 

I am quite certain that the server that provides streaming scenery (for example) is in a completely different data data center than the server that provides live weather. End users have absolutely no control over which servers they connect to with the exception of multiplayer.

One of the things that MSFS probably does during initial loading is to download a list of which IP addresses are being used for specific types of data, optimized for your specific physical location. The only way to change that, is to use a VPN which would show you as being in a different physical location in the world than you actually are.

Edited September 16, 20232 yr by JRBarrett

10 hours ago, pete_auau said:

mmm strange  always  thought  you had  to be  on  multiplayer  server  to see  the  aircraft

I was on multiplayer server, but lately is the first time I've seen this, but only a few times have I seen this traffic behavior and I have been on the MP servers since launch.